Better UX for a Better World

A short story of how I found it super hard to donate some money to the Red Cross

Lately it feels like my life has been hit by a destructive hurricane and it’s very frustrating.

At the same time, people on the other end of the planet are being hit by actual hurricanes, and I would imagine they’re having a much worse time than I am. There are people in the Caribbean and the USA who’ve had their lives literally wiped away by a force of nature. At least I have a roof over my head and the weather here is just slightly annoying.

I am in Sofia, Bulgaria, Eastern Europe. There is very little I can do to help those people but I thought, at least I can donate some money.

I don’t want to donate to any U.S. organizations for a number of reasons. Instead, I search for the website of the Cuban Red Cross (someone just posted pictures from flooded Havana on Facebook and made my choice easier).

The website is in Spanish, with no English version. From the looks of it, it hasn’t been updated in recent times. I know that internet access is an issue in Cuba so I search for the international site of the Red Cross.

I first come across the website of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. On it, I find information about the devastation caused Hurricane Irma, but there is one thing I don’t see.

A huge red button that says “DONATE”.

This website is not giving me a way to donate money for the victims of Irma.

I am slightly pissed but I’m not giving up. Those poor souls have lost everything they have and they need my crappy little donation.

I head back to Google and search for the Red Cross again. I scroll past the page of the Bulgarian Red Cross and find the site of the International Committee of the Red Cross. I sigh with relief when I see a button for donations.

I click on it.

On the left, there’s a donation form. On the right, it says donations will go towards helping war victims.

The thing is, I don’t want to help war victims right now. I’m focused on Irma.

Back to Google it is, and this time I type “Red Cross Irma donation”. The first result is a news story titled “Red Cross in urgent need of donations for Hurricane Irma aftermath”. At this point I think the Red Cross is mocking me.

The next two search results are those of the American and British chapters of the Red Cross. They both have Donate buttons which is something — but it took me way too long to land on those pages. Way too long.

At a time like this each and every Red Cross website should be one giant button asking for donations

At this point I don’t want to deal with the Red Cross any more. In my limited view of the world, at a time like this each and every Red Cross website should be one giant button asking for donations but that is not the case. I’m ready to move on.

I go to UNICEF’s site. It’s not ideal either but at least it gives me options. I choose to support the Humanitarian crises and natural disasters cause and I am finally able to give some small amount of money and help the kids affected by Irma.

The conclusion: Giving vs. giving up

I realize that I must sound like a whiny little bitch who thinks it’s too much work to search on Google and click a few buttons to make the world a slightly better place.

But that’s the reality we live in. A huge part of the people who can and who are willing to donate to charity are whiny little bitches and we want things to be easy for us. We are spoiled and entitled, so when webmasters make it hard for us to give money, we give up instead.

I wish we lived in a world without war and natural disasters but as this is not an option, I wish we lived in a world that was made of huge red buttons asking us to help any way we could.

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